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Maulvi Faqir Mohammad Claims Peace Talks Going On With Pakistan
[VOA News] A big shot of the Pak Taliban says his group has opened peace talks with the government.The Pak Taliban's Deputy Commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, while speaking to local news hounds by telephone, revealed that his group is negotiating a peace deal with the government and that the talks are progressing well. Giving further details, the cut-thoat leader says he believes any peace deal emerging from the dialogue could be used as a "role model" for the rest of insurgency-hit districts in northwestern Pakistain, most of which are on the border with Afghanistan. The Taliban capo says the government has also released scores of his fighters as a goodwill gesture and in return Death Eaters have halted their attacks. No direct confirmation Without directly confirming reports of alleged peace talks with cut-thoats, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... told a local TV station holding such talks is part of his government's policy, and it is a continuing process. "First is dialogue, the other is development and the third is deterrence. That [peace talks] is a part of our policy," he said. The Pak prime minister did not give further details. Reports of talks between the government and Talibs have been carried by local and foreign media outlets recently, but both sides had denied them. At the time, Pak officials had stated that there would be no talks unless Death Eaters lay down their arms. Pakistain in the past has struck peace deals with Taliban faceless myrmidons but they did not last long and Death Eaters used the lull in fighting to regroup. The Pak Taliban has carried out hundreds of attacks prompting the government to launch major military offensives to root out their bases. Political and public demands for engaging in peace talks with Death Eaters have also intensified in Pakistain. A government-sponsored national conference of Pakistain's political and military leaders in September ended with a resolution to "give peace a chance" with cut-thoats. While U.S officials are pushing for talks to end the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, they are unlikely to support Pakistain's peace initiatives with local Taliban forces because of their close association with al-Qaeda-led cut-thoats. Ties with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... , U.S. still problematic Reports of peace talks come amid Islamabad's growing tensions with Washington following last month's NATO Pakistain condemned the "unprovoked" attack and responded by closing border crossings used by NATO to supply its forces in Afghanistan. It also told Washington to vacate an airbase in southwestern Pakistain by December 11 and has vowed to review anti-terror cooperation with international forces. Prime Minister Gilani in his Saturday remarks reiterated that, on his instructions, politicians are preparing recommendations for future relationship with the United States. "We want to have maintained excellent relations with the United States but [based] on mutual respect and mutual interest," he said. The United States insists the Posted by: Fred 2011-12-11 |
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